Ant Run

Holy blast of Arctic air, Batman. Man, it got bloody cold in the past day and a half or so. The high temperature on Thursday was rather balmy, around -6° (Fahrenheit/-21° Celsius,) I think. A nice light snow day it was, all day the white stuff fell from overcast skies. No need for sunglasses. Friday (today) ... wait! Back up. The snow was, in fact, on Wednesday and it cleared out by Thursday morning. Lost track of time a bit, I think I have. Whenever it was, -6/-21 pretty quickly turned into what we're currently at now: -24° (-31 Celsius.) Comparitively, -6 isn't actually that bad. I was almost thinkin' of layin' out to catch some rays, work on my tan a little, maybe whip up a batch of margaritas, play some Jimmy Buffett, have fun little beach volleyball tournament with the people on my street, the works! That was at -6. -24's a whole lot different. Brrrrrrr f'in' cold out there, I tell ya what!

Yet somehow, even having Friday off from work, I managed enough enthusiasm to walk out the door, start my truck, and drive to the gym for a run before they closed tonight. Now that I'm back in my house, run successful, all cleaned up, stove has fresh wood and is burnin' on overdrive, toasty warmth surrounds me, dog happily snoozin' by my feet -- I ain't so sure I wanna go out tonight. As I type this up it's already like 11 (not that that's every stopped me before from goin' out this late) and while part of me is really cravin' a pint of Guinness... dude, I don't wanna go back out there into the sub-Arctic deep freeze of Interior Alaska. Probably wouldn't have this situation in New Jersey. -24° in Bergen County? Not even in northern New Hampshire if I moved there. Things that make me ponder... ponder ponder ponder hmmm... since hese temperatures ain't exactly what I've been used to for the majority of my freakin' life, it's always interesting (at least to me) when this really cold stuff moves in.

Friday Nite Run: 16 minutes 0 seconds	(+8)
·indoors·

Run Time - January:

1 hour 33 minutes

Another pretty easy run tonight and a mega-milestone! No, not really a milestone but final-freakin'-ly I moved out of the the 15-something minute range... yes, a whole 8 seconds added to move me up to 16 minutes. Yippy-ki-ay?

I'm not really sure why I advance only in short amounts. Very easily I could pick music that'll allow me to add 30 seconds or 40 or a minute or whatever... but lately it's just been 10 seconds. Am I scared? Man, I ain't a skeered a nuttin'... well, maybe getting cancer or something like that and then there's my irrational fear of nuclear war... and of course my fear of liberals running America to their heart's delight... but what about a fear with running? Obviously I don't wanna break my leg again. That would be bad. What would happen to me is I'd eat and I wouldn't exercise and I'd gain a hundred pounds or more and I'd have to seek help to be rolled back into the ocean where'd I'd belong with the other sea life: whales, walruses, etc. Don't want that. So maybe increasing only so slightly each time out is my way of makin' sure I don't have a setback. I haven't really explored this with Him but maybe God's helping me out in setting my run times. He would know better than I if I'd be in danger from adding too much time on.

In any case -- good run tonight. Still not happy with frequency in January so far: 6 runs in 11 days is absolutely not acceptable... ahhh but then again, tis better than only 5 runs and certainly tis better than none. Alright, I'll look on the bright side. Hopefully it'll get brighter!

Running tunes from
the album of the day...27 sec

Adam Ant

Manners
& Physique

1989/90




Room At The Top
Rough Stuff
If You Keep On
Manners & Physique
Can't Set Rules About Love
U.S.S.A.
Bright Lights Black Leather
Piccadilly
Young Dumb And Full Of It
Anger Inc.

I remember bein' in Salt Lake City and on the radio KJQ was "Utah's Modern Rock Leader" back then, one of the damn coolest stations I've heard. They were spinning Room At The Top when it was Adam Ant's new single, his first in years. Years before, back in suburban Bergen County, New Jersey, my friend and neighbor Jim had a couple Adam and the Ants LPs. So that, plus thanks to videos in the earliest days of MTV, was when I first got into Adam Ant. But through the years, I never listened to him much... until about a year ago when I rediscovered those old LPs in mp3 form. Now I'm giving this album a listen.

On the first play or two, it's not so impressive. Room At The Top is alright, was quite successful in Ant's London and here in America. Can't Set Rules About Love is pretty cool, too. Reminds me a little of P.I.L. (which I desperately need to listen to... okay, maybe not desperately but it's been far tooooo long.) Much of the rest makes me think Ant was shooting for a sound that's part new wave and part club(?) -- stuff that would be acceptable on a dance floor at high decibles. Well, maybe it's not that suitable for clubs... I dunno, it's just not the same good ol' Adam and The Ants sound that he had back in the early 80's. Ahhh well, it's still okay but nothing to really rave about.

128 kbps dload @ Gustavoeo